108 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Aug. 1, 1900. 
OVER PRODUCTION OF TEAS. 
To the Editor of the Home and Colonial Mail. 
Sir, — It would perha|i;j he unnecessary to reply 
to Mr. Hughes' lettiM' in your last issue, were 
it not that he appears — unintentionally, no 
doubt — to have drawn wrong inferences from niy 
letter, in order to air his liobby of inanuiinf^. ■ 
I pointed out that the average faU of one 
farthing per pound per annum for ten years was 
due to the rapacity of dealers ra'her thai! to 
over-production, bat that over-production was 
clearly the cause of the recent much uioro rapid 
fall. Mr. Hughes says the steady fail is probably 
due to a decline in quality. But tlie fall h.is been 
in both Indian and Ceylon teas, practically 
the only teas consumed. The prices of Is, )s4i, 
and is 7d, seem fixed to consumers. If rajiacity 
has nothing to do with this steady fali, Vi'heredo 
dealers buy the finer and d'^aier teas to blend 
with the teas of Ceyl en and India so as to justify 
the same price to consumers as was charged ten 
years ago, when teas cost them 3d. ni,>re? 
I did not say teas made in July were inferior 
— on the contrary we know they are about our 
best teas. I did sa,y the most certain method 
of improving the price was to keep a month's 
crop off the London market. This merely to 
emphasize the fact of over-production. 
He who would advise general manuring under 
present circumstances, with the certain result of 
further over-production, would deserve to rank 
with those who refuse help to drowning men, 
unless such help is paid for. I quite agree with 
Mr. Hughes when he says " there is plenty of 
scope for a higher individual price." But where 
is the foolish Quixotic dealer who would pay this 
higher price while over-production is rampant. 
Again, a general, not individual, higher price is 
necessary to sustain the industry. — Yours faith- 
fully, Wm. IUackenzie. 
July 4, 1900. 
TEA SAMPLING. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE HOME AND COLONIAL MAIL. 
Sir,— I venture to draw your attention to a 
matter which in my judgnient merits the strongest 
condemnation, namely, the manner in which tea 
is sampled at present in many of the dock ware- 
houses. A dealer buys a break of, say, 100 chests 
in sale, on a sample which possibly weighs three 
ounces. Immediately after sale he sends to the 
■warehouse for, say, eight pounds from eight of 
the chests ; and the supposition lias alvvays been 
that the dock company opened eight chests and 
furnished him with a pound from each, charging 
4:d per chest for the service rendered. But, can 
it be believed that in numbers of tea warehouse 
two or three pounds are taken from one che^t 
— possibly from a chest already open, so that 
the benelit to tiie buyer oi getting eigiit 
separate samples from as many different chests, 
not previously sampled, to enable him to check 
liis purchase, is entirely lost. But he is neverthe- 
less charged 4d. per package for opening eight 
chests, and at the same time deprived of the 
power to ascertain if the bulk is equal to sample 
or whether the break is regular in quality or 
not ; in fact, it is quite possible tor tlie dock 
company to scainp the bulking of the tea, and 
escape detection afterwards till the buyers chance 
of establishing a claim for irregularity has lapsed 
under the jjublic sale cfinditions. Surely this is 
a rjiatler which the Brokers' Association should 
look into if the lionourable tr;iditions of the tea 
trade are .still to be maintained. — I am, &c , 
D. I\ Shillington, 
THREE NEW SPECIES OF 
EUCALYPTUS. 
By R. T. Raker, F.L.S., Curator, Technological 
Museum, Sydney. 
Eucalyptus Oreade.*, sp.aov. A "Mountain 
A-h." — A tall tree with a sniooih wliiiish bark 
down to the ground, or sometimes leaving a lighter 
rough bark 6 — 8 feet from the ground. 
M. Maculosa, " Spiilted (tuui." — A tree rarely 
exceeding 60 fec't in heiglit, usually from 20—40 
feet (W.B.). I'.uk smooth to the ground. 
Eucalyptus I'atfciitinervis, "Btetard M.ahogany." 
— A mediuni-siz^'il tree as far as seen, M'ith a 
stringy bark ^iiuilar to (hat i f IC. resiniftra. Sm 
On fv.'o New fepKCiKS of Casuaiiisa.— By 
K T Baker, E.L.S., Curator, Ttclmologicai 
Museum, Sydney. From the proceedings of the 
Liu- can Society of New Soutli Wales, 1899, Part 
4, October 2.5tli. Casuarina Cambagei, sp. nov. 
— " Belah." — A tree attaining a height of from 
70 to lOU feet, dioicious, glabrous ; branclilels 
glaucous or dark sreen in the slender form, ascend- 
ing, intcrnodes varying in length up lo half cvn 
inch ; not promineiitiy angled. Oasuaiina Lueh- 
manni, sp. Kov. — " Bull Oak." — A fair-sizsd tree, 
attainiiig a height of 70 to SO feet, or rarely 100 
feet, and a diameter of from 1 to ij- feet, rarely 
2 feet. Bark furrov, ed, brittle, aiid easily removed. 
Branchlets robust, li;;ht color.red or glanc^us, 
under a line (f) in diameter, about the same thick- 
ness as in C. glauca, Sieb. the interiioih'.-s ribbcil, 
6 lines long, glaucous, the nodes yellow, sheaih- 
teeth brown or black, short, acute, 9 to 12 in the 
thorl, mostly 11. 
BRAZIL COFFEE NOTES. 
Telegrams from abroad state an accojd has been 
reached between Brazil and Italy in rcgfid to the 
duties on Brazilian cofi'ee. It is also .said that 
France has consented to kno'j.k off 20 franco, which 
in our opinion is not .sufficient. 
The Commercio de Poido of the 23th ult., says 
that recent torrential rains luvve .greatly i)re];idiced 
the coffee crop in the Ribeiia-.i i'reto (listrict. At 
Mocdca and other points the riiiris liave knocked 
off much fruit, the damage beiiig esliniated at 
one-third of the crop. — liio News, June 5. 
A Sao Paulo telegram of the loth iust-, says that 
in three Italian steamers 3,000 Italian laborers had 
left that state for Italj'. Thi-i at the beginning? of 
the coffee picking season is a bad ^^ig^. The plan- 
ters cannot be n.anaging weil if lal:oreis are leaving 
the country just ab the time when they are most 
wanted. —Jiie News. 
America to Grow Green Tea-s !— Just as we 
in Ceylon are making every effort to send green 
teas to the American continer.rs, lo :in<! beh.jhl ! 
the black-tea-produciug country in South Caro- 
lina intends to take up the (nirsuit. We ^iKite 
as follows from the Planter of June Tth, but let 
no local planter be alai nied, in spite of the appa- 
rent success of the (Jaridina plantation : — 
Dr. Charles U. Sheparil, Special Ageut m charge 
tea culture investigations, writes to us f: Mm. " Piae- 
hurst," Summerville, South Oarolhia : — ' Th6 txpari- 
mental irrigation which I .am now int oduciiii^ into 
my tea gardens should uiateiiaily iiicrjase 'be leaf 
production. According to my beat, Jesuits, it, woMid 
seem possible to produce decidedly inore than .')00!b. 
of dry tea per annum per acr?. Caa jou favour m.i 
by sending any prin.ted data .'t.s to the, best meii!;d'3 
followed in India iu the maiuifacture of Gr.ieii te i ? 
. . . As yet I believe no s;o j ! results have followed 
the attempts to apply mechft'iieal processea tJ tais 
manufacture." 
